Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne has called for the new Media Commission to be given added powers to regulate ads on social media.
Mr Byrne was speaking after it emerged this week that Instagram was found to be unknowingly pitching diet and weight loss products to vulnerable people with eating disorders on their platform.
For instance, the BBC discovered that some people with a history of eating disorders were being targeted with ads for ‘appetite suppressant’ products, which would pose a serious risk of a relapse.
According to Instagram, this was a mistake and was happening because of the algorithms working behind the scenes, and they have apologised for any hurt it may have caused.
Mr Byrne is calling for the new Media Commission here to be given extra powers to allow them crack down on social media companies and hold them to account for their algorithms and ‘machine learning’ actions.
He said: “This is a huge area as more and more decisions are being made by simply using machine learning.
“Decisions about everything from what we watch to more importantly, who gets employed and what entitlements we may have are being made by algorithms and we need mechanisms in place to ensure that they don’t reinforce discrimination.
“The new Media Commission will have a significant role in regulating tech companies in Ireland across Europe and in particular in the area of online safety.
“I have been pushing for regulation of algorithmic decision making to guard against bias.”
A spokesman for Facebook, Instagram’s owners, said: “To help people discover content they’re interested in, we recently rolled out a new way to search on Instagram beyond hashtags and usernames, where you tap on the search bar and we suggest topics you may want to search for.
“Those suggestions, as well as the search results themselves, are limited to general interests.
"Weight loss should not have been one of them and we’ve taken steps to prevent these terms from appearing here. We’re sorry for any confusion caused.”
